Objects may be stored and/or transported on base structures, for example, to organize or improve the ease of handling the objects. For example, freight may be placed on pallets stored and later shipped via aircraft, trucks, boats, and/or trains. Pallets may conform to industry standards, such as, for example, standards set forth by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) ULD Technical Manual. For example, two types of pallets used for shipping freight via aircraft are PMC pallets, which measure about 96 inches by about 125 inches, and PAG pallets, which measure about 88 inches by about 125 inches. Other types of pallets are known.
Examples of freight placed on pallets may include, for example, such objects as cardboard boxes containing clothing, hazardous materials containers, and/or explosives. Typically, the objects placed on pallets are not enclosed by anything other than, for example, shrink-wrap plastic, which tends to keep freight dry when exposed to rain, and/or pallet netting, which tends to prevent freight from shifting on the pallet during transport.
Such pallets may be transported via aircraft and may be loaded into an aircraft cabin such that they are open to the cabin and such that a flight crew of the aircraft may not have access to the pallets, for example, once the aircraft is fully loaded and ready for flight. As a result, if a fire were to occur on a pallet located in the aircraft cabin, the flight crew might not necessarily have access to the pallet experiencing the fire, thereby preventing the flight crew from attempting to control or extinguish the fire with a hand-held fire extinguisher. Such a situation may present a great risk to the survival of the aircraft and/or the flight crew and any passengers aboard the aircraft.
There may exist a desire to provide a device for containing and/or suppressing a fire associated with one or more objects located on a base structure. There may exist a desire to provide a method for containing and/or suppressing a fire associated with one or more objects located on a base structure. For example, there may exist a desire to provide a device and/or method for containing and/or suppressing a fire associated with one or more objects located on a pallet.
The invention may seek to satisfy one or more of the above-mentioned desires. Although the present invention may obviate one or more of the above-mentioned desires, it should be understood that some aspects of the invention might not necessarily obviate them.